I finally got Ubuntu installed and working on my new PC.

[Initech]

I have to say it is pretty bad ass... way better than anything Microsoft has ever put out, and the price is certainly right - free!

[Deja Q]

1. Free is not a business model. Can you eat via giving everything away for free?

That and Ubuntu never worked with my scanner, which is certainly not the newest and greatest and comes from a recognized name brand of quality (Epson).

Having said that, it is still exponentially better than Microsoft ______(tm).

Unless there's a future paradigm shift that benefits everybody, of course...

[hunter]

2. When it all comes down, I think hardware will pay for the software.

Ubuntu will continue to be free because the people making and selling the hardware will be supporting the software and drivers their hardware requires.

A market will develop where people purchase a device because it works so well with open source software, and manufacturers will have larger and larger incentives to support open source software.

Software development people will work for hardware, advertising, and telecommunications firms, and not so much for monolithic software firms like Microsoft or Adobe.

[Initech]

3. I haven't tried it with my printer but it seems to be running everything else fine.